


Frost

by KeeperofSeeds



Series: Lyra Tabris [1]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Blanket Permission, City Elf Origin, Ficlet, Gen, POV Female Character, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Travel, Wordcount: 100-1.000, Wordcount: 100-500
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-12
Updated: 2018-09-12
Packaged: 2019-07-08 18:33:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15935963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeeperofSeeds/pseuds/KeeperofSeeds
Summary: Tabris’ first day of travel with Duncan. Everything that happened unexpectedly catches up with her.





	Frost

**Author's Note:**

> 1) frost

Her first day away from the Alienage dawns bright and cold. Patches of frost line the ground outside her tent and she’s grateful for the boots she’d taken from the castle. Their extra warmth override the discomfort of the blister she’d gotten from the shifting of the too big human shoe.

Duncan is already up adding another log to their fire when she crawls out from her borrowed tent.

She can’t see any hint of the city on the horizon, there’s only fields. Stretching out behind them, patches of green being quickly overtaken by brown as the season changes.

The air smells different here. Fresh and sharp, like the edge of a blade against her throat. She drags in a breath past that feeling but it suddenly feels like she can’t get enough. She tries again. Another breath, then another. She’s focusing so hard on the next breath that it takes a moment to feel Duncan’s hand on her shoulder.  
When had she closed her eyes?  
“I’m fine,” she chokes out. It feels like speaking takes too much effort.

She expects condemnation. Maybe Duncan will leave her here. Maybe he’ll decide someone like her has no place in the Grey Wardens after all. But he does none of those things. Instead he pulls at her. “Come,” he says, his voice still sleep heavy. He directs her to the fire, and pulls a small pan from his pack.  
“We have time before we need to reach our destination. There is no need to eat on the road.”

* * *

The sun has melted the mornings frost by the time they start off, and her breath comes easier. Duncan continues to give her space as they travel but she finds her eyes wandering back to stare at his broad form.

He was one more unexpected thing in a string of events she never could have predicted. Maybe this journey would be more than just an means of escape. Maybe she could find a place with these Wardens.

**Author's Note:**

> “No one can tell what goes on in between the person you were and the person you become. No one can chart that blue and lonely section of hell. There are no maps of the change. You just come out the other side.
> 
> Or you don't.”
> 
> -Stephen King, The Stand


End file.
